Formerly "A Movie A Day" :/

Sunday, September 6, 2009

JCVD - 2008 - Dir. El Mechri

I sort of knew that JCVD wasn't going to be the irony fest I wanted it to be. But that raised the question. WHAT THE FUCK WAS IT GOING TO BE THEN!? I mean, I remember when the film was first announced, I just naturally assumed it was going to be funny. But apparently, Jean Claude is a serious subject. Not one of whimsy and silliness. It doesn't matter how many movies about exploding jeans he's in. I guess that's sort of the point, Jean-Claude kinda takes himself seriously. I didn't realize but... the man CAN speak... just not English. Apparently, he drops little nuggets of k-nowledge/Zen wisdom all over the French speaking world. That hasn't really changed the fact that most of his movies have been straight to DVD for the past few years. I guess, the movie kind of depicts a Jean-Claude type fellow, who is still working, but kind of has been raped of all dignity. There's a clear point in the film of trying to inject some dignity into Jean-Claude's actual career... and it seemed to have worked. The man got a bit of respect acting wise for this role. He's all-right. Watching him work in his native tongue is a little different from watching him putter through his English lines. I'm not sure I really needed to watch him have his special little monologue. It is kind of hypnotic to watch the man act. Not like Daniel Day Lewis is hypnotic. It's like watching a monkey put on jeans. Wait... that's terrible. I dunno, I'm just not used to watching him ACTUALLY act. He can do it. I wouldn't be throwing Oscars at him like some people have suggested. But hey, Oscars are for queers anyway. All in all, the movie is basically a hostage movie with a intensely "meta" protagonist. It makes it a little more interesting than the usual fare, but when you get right down to it, the movie is completely reliant on the gimmick. The movie IS the gimmick. And it's not boring. It's not really badly made. It just feels, well, a little gimmick-y and by the time the movie ended... well... I felt empty. Jean-Claude can give quite a roundhouse kick, but I guess that's old news.

Sure, I could have a still from JCVD, but hey... this is a picture too.

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